Last week I asked a somewhat controversial question regarding Tool‘s set list. There are a lot of strong feels out there regarding Tool‘s recent tour habits, and a good percentage of Tool fans are dissappointed by the lack on change in their set list. Compared to the Lateralus tour, the 10,000 Days tour has been considerably more static, and generally shorter in set length.
Personally, I’m not too bothered by the repetitiveness of it, since I’m more of the opinion that Tool play their shows aimed at 80%+ of their audience only seeing them once per tour. As someone who’d prefer see Tool more than once per tour, I can live with this. I am slightly dissappointed the show is a little shorter than normal, though anything over 90 minutes is still a good show. Set list choice somewhat bothers me, since there’s several songs they don’t seem to play anymore (Aenima for instance) that I’d rather see, and other songs such as 46&2 and Schism are overplayed.
The results of the poll show that most people consider each show and individual experience, and therefore the setlist isn’t important. I agree with that too. Generally though, readers are put off by the set list, though probably not enough to prevent them from going.
- No, each show is a new experience 111 Votes
- Yes, I still go to shows but really want to see song xyz 75 Votes
- Yes, but if they played Lateralus from end to end each night I wouldn’t complain 66 Votes
- Yes, it tells me Tool are just going through the motions 63 Votes
- No, I only see one show per tour 47 Votes
- Meh 30 Votes
- No, the setlist is perfect 10 Votes
- Yes, Tool suck 8 Votes
Here’s some questions for you guys to answer below:
- Do Tool have a responsibility to the fans to respond to demands for a different set?
- Would you rather see a longer, more varied set only once rather than the same set multiple times?
- Are the complaints really based on a percieved negative reaction to 10,000 Days, and the adbundance of those tracks in the set?
- Should Tool ditch the visual aspects of the show in order to be more flexible on stage?
Good questions. I’d like to say that the band has at least an obligation to some degree to address their fans requests for more variation in their live sets, but we know that Tool isn’t necessarily the sort of band that caters to their fans wishes in that sense. Still, there are some great songs that they’ve written and haven’t touched in years, and it does make me think “Why not play them?” I know its entirely subjective, but when Maynard states that he doesn’t exactly possess the emotional capacity or the energy to perform some of those songs, it… Read more »
Yes, just look on Amazon – every Tool album has gotten 4.5 stars but 10,000 Days got 4 stars.
Tool are just in a sad state now. They’re one of the most hopeless bands I know. They’re really depressing…
[quote comment=”33361″]Yes, just look on Amazon – every Tool album has gotten 4.5 stars but 10,000 Days got 4 stars.
Tool are just in a sad state now. They’re one of the most hopeless bands I know. They’re really depressing…[/quote]
4 Stars – man that really does suck. I hate to think what you’d say about 1 star albums…